Dining Out: More downs than ups at Lift

Peter Hum, OTTAWA CITIZEN04.03.2013

Five scallops ($31.95) were a touch over-cooked and they sat on an underseasoned edamame purée.

A seared Ahi tuna dish was a travesty, combining fish that had little flavour with mealy bits of tasteless avocado and tomato, a bit of red onion, and most oddly, a heap of mango jam, almost certainly from a jar.Peter Hum
/ Ottawa Citizen

We were in the elevator, on our way to Lift Restaurant in the Delta Ottawa City Centre, when we saw a sign that raised our hopes.

As part of a two-year makeover that saw the Lyon Street hotel rise last fall from the Crowne Plaza’s remnants, Lift would show off a “multi-million-dollar renovation fusing stone, wood and fire with contemporary and modern designs,” the placard in the elevator said. We also expected more than a pretty reno. Overseen by executive chef Christopher Marz, who had been at the Crowne Plaza since 2004, Lift would deliver “regionally inspired cuisine cooked with passion,” it read.

The placard was only half-right.

Lift is a sleek place to eat and drink, the nearby bar and open-concept lounge area even more so. Although the restaurant is starved of natural light, its mix of white walls, striped banquettes, curved wooden walls and mirrors has bright, attractive style going for it. The chill music is right in sync.

But over my three visits, the food at Lift has been up and down, with more of the latter than the former. Some dishes were run-of-the-mill or a little better, but too many were flops. And more often than not, the food struck us as markedly over-priced.

And yet like the sign in the elevator, Lift’s menu talks the talk. Seafood dishes receive the Ocean Wise sign of approval, attesting to the sustainability of the black cod, salmon and scallop main courses. Lift is also a member of Savour Ottawa, meaning that it passes that organization’s threshold for using local ingredients. That said, the only overtly made-in-Ottawa citations on the menu have to do with Art-is-in bread, some local craft beers and gelato from Preston Street.

There is one gluten-free option. In fact, the menu proclaims “our kitchen is your kitchen,” promising to provide “a food item or preparation method” as requested if possible.

Most often, what we wanted was dishes that were simply better. Or cheaper.

A lunch-hour visit was filled with disappointments, oddly due to Lift’s so-called “signature” dishes. We tried five appealingly described items that also appear at dinnertime as appetizers. Not one prompted a smile.

Curried calamari and crispy dry ribs were poorly executed pub grub. The squid, while tender, tasted weakly of curry powder and little more. Once dunked into the too-thick “raitta,” which lacked the advertised mint, the breading on the calamari fell off. Most pork ribs were much too overcooked and dry.

Also too dry was the meat in three green-onion-and-pickled-beet-adorned duck confit tacos. This dish simply seemed like a half-hearted effort.

A seared Ahi tuna dish was a travesty, combining fish that had little flavour with mealy bits of tasteless avocado and tomato, a bit of red onion, and most oddly, a heap of mango jam, almost certainly from a jar. Its sweetness overwhelmed everything on the plate. Adding bewilderment upon frustration was the fact that the menu had promised “chili mango coulis.”

Garlic shrimp were small, cold and limp, but in relative terms, they were passable, served on Art-is-in bread, with a dice of pepper and garlic.

At least the shrimp were on the house. (Other signature dishes were two for $20). Our waiter had flubbed the order, dropped off the unrequested shrimp, returned and took them away after asking if we had touched them, and then brought them back as a freebie.

Throughout that lunch, service from all hands was impersonal and even inattentive — we left after retrieving our coats ourselves from the unmanned coat check closet.

Best at that lunch was the poached salmon main ($25.95) with wilted greens and a quinoa pilaf, although the bit of lemon cream sauce tasted of shortcuts rather than fresh ingredients and from-scratch cooking.

A dinner visit was a little more pleasing. Service was more adroit, but still a little over-eager. The tuna appetizer was better executed, with thicker slabs of fish, better avocado and tomato, and less of the dreaded mango jam.

But high-priced main courses did not deliver value.

Five scallops ($31.95) were a touch over-cooked and they sat on an underseasoned edamame purée. The side salad of grilled asparagus, bacon and cherry tomatoes simply stole the show.

A lamb shank ($31.95) was big and meaty, but its red-wine braise imparted little extra flavour. Again, the side dish, a barley risotto, impressed more than the plate’s supposed star.

Seared black cod ($26.95) was the best of the three mains, but the fish still did not wow, and it was overshadowed by the plate’s fennel, olive and tomato ragù.

We did like the sampler of three contrasting desserts — baked apple cheesecake, chocolate pavé and stewed red berry cocktail.

A few days later, I had lunch again, but of course I and my companion skipped the signature dishes.

My friend tried the lunch buffet, which offered three meatier options (chicken curry with lentils with rice, ham with pineapple, and some salmon), along with the bounty of the well-stocked salad and dessert bars. His verdict: the food was all right, but the price ($17.95) seemed like a few dollars too much.

For me, there was a cup of seafood chowder and a chicken schnitzel sandwich. They were solid choices, although the soup was salty and the mussels were not as tasty as I had hoped.

It felt good to end my research at Lift with an adequate lunch. But it wasn’t enough to erase the memory of the missteps and too-expensive, less-than-dazzling dishes that had come before.

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